Inside the British Basketball Takeover – With Ed Warner – Ep. 39

In Episode 39 of the Hoopsfix Podcast, we sit down with former British Basketball Federation (BBF) Chairman, Ed Warner, in our brand new studio.

Warner was at the helm of the BBF for seven weeks, before resigning along with six other independent directors, following a ‘hostile takeover’ of the BBF by the Home Country Associations, which stripped its of its powers.

The former UK Athletics Chair has been public in his criticism of the home nations since and came on to the Hoopsfix podcast to discuss everything that has happened in depth.

All of the Home Country Associations – Basketball England, Basketball Scotland, Basketball Wales – and Sport England have been contacted for comment

(*Note – this was recorded approximately a month ago on October 22 so certain things might be slightly out of date.)

In this 1 hour and 20 minute episode, hear from Ed on:

• His background prior to getting involved with British Basketball
• Why he decided to take on the job
• What people were saying about basketball before he took on the position
• The position the BBF was in when he came into the role
• What he felt was ‘deep seated animosity’ towards the BBF
• Finding what he believed to be lot of people within the sport not actually caring about basketball
• The shocking amount of self-interest he claimed to see
• Why be believes Basketball England do not have the right people in place to push the sport forward
• Sport England’s role amongst all the proceedings
• The details of the ‘coup’; what amounted to a hostile takeover of the BBF by the HCAs
• How the HCAs stripped the BBF of its powers
• Why he and the other independent directors felt they had to resign from their positions
• The inability of the BBF and HCAs to come to an agreement on how to spend the allotted government funding
• The rejection of all the HCA Chairs to join the BBF board
• Why he feels Basketball England have been in violation of Sport England’s governance code
• What he feels is an autocratic style leadership from Basketball England that needs removing
• The lack of commercial income raised by the British Basketball Federation since its inception
• The appeal of 3×3 with potential commercial partners
• Why he isn’t sure two BBL franchises in London can work at the moment
• Why governing bodies always get blowback regardless of the sport
• Why he doesn’t think basketball will have a great chance with the new Aspire fund
• The battle that basketball and other sports have to face for national media attention
• Why he believes national team success is more important than professional league success to grow the sport
• What he sees in the future for British basketball
• And much, much, more!

As always, I’d love to get your feedback, come back after you’ve listened and lets get some discussion going in the comments.

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